A FAMILIAR MEME. A NEW CONTEXT.
Picture of an orange bird in dark sunglasses lying on a pillow, expressing nonchalance and self-assurance. It is used as a reply when something is not worth worrying about, and it dates to around 2017.
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"Who the fuck cares" is a picture of an orange bird lying on a white pillow. The bird is shown wearing dark sunglasses, with a tousled crest of several tall feathers. It holds a thin blade of grass in its beak, one leg hangs off the edge of the pillow, and the other is bent against its chest. The pose is relaxed and self-satisfied, and it's exactly that pose that sets the meme's core image.
The drawing is done in a simple outline style with flat fill and no background. The catalog notes that the bird's appearance gets altered for different situations, so the base illustration serves as a starting point for variations.
The original drawing's author and where it was first published couldn't be established. The search turned up no reliable mentions of who created the bird, when it first appeared, or which community or site it became known in. The origin hasn't been established.
The catalog dates the meme to 2017. This date is given in the entry's tags and probably corresponds to when it spread widely across the Russian-speaking internet. It couldn't be independently confirmed, so in the text it's given as the catalog's date rather than an established fact.
According to the catalog's description, the main device is altering the bird's look: giving it a different hairstyle or, via photoshop, adding the head of a well-known person. Both devices carry the general image over onto new characters and new situations while keeping the recognizable pose and expression.
The meme's name, "Who the fuck cares," is close in meaning to phrases like "what difference does it make" or "so what." This phrasing conveys a stance of calm indifference toward others' opinions, and it's exactly this that users associate with the picture when they want to show they have no intention of changing anything.
Like many memes of this type, it exists as a series of pictures that can be compared with one another. Comparing them shows that the pose and expression stay the same, while an external detail changes, and it's by that detail that a specific variant is recognized.
The meme expresses the self-confidence of a particular group's representative or of an individual. It works as a joking self-description: the image shows nonchalance, and the caption turns it into a challenge to everyone around.
The simplicity of the drawing makes it easy to create variations. Recognition is instant, and the image isn't tied to any specific event, so the meme can be used in all kinds of contexts, from short everyday comments to exchanges within online communities.
The illustration given in the catalog shows the base version of the bird, without a changed hairstyle and without a head swap. The description talks about variants of the meme, so there's no direct contradiction, but the illustration doesn't demonstrate the device mentioned in the entry's text. Readers should keep this in mind when comparing the description with the picture.
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